The dimensional lumber industry has seen a continuous increase in the automation ratio of production processes in the last decades. Manual interventions are thus progressively eliminated from these processes, in a continuous struggle to lower production costs.
One process which has been the subject of such automation is often referred to in the art as optimization. In this process, parallel and transversally oriented wood boards are scanned as they are longitudinally conveyed on a production line. A system referred to as an optimizer uses the scanning data to identify imperfections in each particular wood board, and calculates a trimming solution to optimize the monetary value of the wood board. For example, a board of a given length could have some imperfections trimmed off one or both ends to yield a board having a higher grade, and therefore having a higher monetary value, although it is not as long as its original length.
The trimming can be done in different ways. One way trimming can be done is by using one or more saws at fixed transversal positions at a given longitudinal location along the conveyance path of the boards. Each board is then displaced lengthwisely (in the transversal orientation), to be positioned in alignment with the particular saw or saws which will trim it in accordance with the trimming solution.
Although known processes and methods to lengthwisely displace such boards have been satisfactory to a certain degree, there remains a need to obtain even more accuracy in positioning the board, and to further increase the longitudinal conveyance speed at which the lengthwise displacement takes place, to further increase production rate.